TL;DR Nothing.

Since 26.01.2023 the SEO circles at Twitter and LinkedIn are swarming with data about a leak of ranking factors from Yandex.ru. People are looking for them in relation to SEO in Google. The topic is a nowelty as I cannot remember any other leak of this scale, that would feed the SEO industry with information straight from the source, even if it is not Google, the urge to draw parallels is strong.

You probably heard about Yandex, it’s the 4th biggest search engine by market share worldwide. Yesterday proprietary source code of Yandex was leaked.

The most interesting part for SEO community is: the list of all 1922 ranking factors used in the search algorithm

[🧵THREAD] pic.twitter.com/6x82AAmbON

— Alex Buraks (@alex_buraks) January 27, 2023

Backlinks are here to stay.

If there is one thing that we can learn from the recent Yandex leak is that the basics are still the essential part of SEO.

I will not go into the different factors, as many people have already done it in great detail during those few days. I will provide a few remarks based on my observations.

Backlinks are still a thing - yeah, why wouldn't they be? Algorithms need constant stimulus to find and evaluate relevant information, and as the world becomes increasingly digitally dynamic, the freshness and relevancy of backlinks will still be a thing. Of course, the form of a backlink may differ, and I believe that for some queries, we will see a more significant emphasis on UGC backlinks and social media. In contrast, some queries will still benefit more from more traditional forms of backlinks.

Building backlinks is and will still be a vital element of your SEO strategy. Remember that it always requires the right approach for your scenario. The topic of backlinks intertwines with the overall brand strength that will be described later on.

Keep It Simple Stupid - a few words about the website

Keep it Simple Stupid - one of the best design principles out there. K.I.S.S is for me, something that is often overlooked. But how does it relate to the Yandex leak?

Well, you have to focus on the user and on solving their particular needs in an easy-to-digest manner.

Your website (at the very least) should be loading fast, have precise URL addresses, good uptime, and an overall stable host. Keeping away from SPAM is also a good idea 😈

You need to make the information available to the user as soon as possible (maintaining fast loading time and overall host stability); they should then be able to find it quickly (thanks to great UX, easy-to-read URL, and heading, and of course an easy to follow content structure).

People who tend to find the information they are looking for will provide different metrics for the search engines than users who dropped the website without finding the information they were looking for. Yandex and Google look at how users interact with websites that rank for a keyword and use this information to rank pages.

Focus on your marketing - SEO will come

When talking about overall marketing activities and how they affect SEO, many factors come to mind. The bigger the brand, the bigger the buzz, and the more incentive a search engine has to interact with a website. By focusing on building a solid brand and working on SEO, you are working on fantastic results. You have to switch from thinking that SEO is the solution for your business growth needs.

I am an SEO. What should I do?

You should at least have a look at those elements to be able to make conversation on SEO events 😉

Jokes aside, if you are already working in a way that focuses on the user and quality, there is nothing more to do. Keep up the good work.

Further reading

arseniyshestakov.com/2023/01/26/yandex-services-source-code-leak/
gist.github.com/ArseniyShestakov/53a80e3214601aa20d1075872a1ea989
searchengineland.com/yandex-search-ranking-factors-leak-392323
https://cybernews.com/news/yandex-source-code-leaked/

Last Saturday, I attended a deep dive course focusing on Google Search Console. I have to say that even though I’ve considered GSC as one of the main tools of the trade for any SEO. I was still able to understand the ins and outs of it better.  

It may seem strange, but I felt like a person using a tool was suddenly shown other ways of using it. I am always open to challenging my knowledge and learning new things, especially regarding tools that I consider fundamental in my work as an SEO.

When you constantly use something, you begin to work automatically—always resorting to the same actions, views, and solutions. Thanks to Sebastian, I was able to challenge the way I am using GSC in my daily work. It was a significant refresh, and I could learn new things from it.

But let’s go back to the beginning. Before starting the course, Sebastian made a LinkedIn post asking people to evaluate their knowledge of GSC. Well played Sebastian, well played. You’ve caught my attention. After taking it, I became curious about the material that Sebastian had prepared for this course.

The online session began on time and lasted for about 9 hours, including a few breaks. This was a lot to process. Thankfully, the information was presented in an approachable way.

Sebastian used as many examples as possible and paid great attention to detail. No question was left unanswered, and other course participants often voiced their opinions and shared custom case studies.

Pros:

- you can learn new things about your favourite tool,
- the significant part about the way Google does index content,
- good overall pace,
- working on real-life examples
- more practice, less theory

Cons:
- 2 five hour-long sessions would be better. I have problems focusing after a few hours of listening, even if the material is great
- a little rearrangement of blocks would be beneficial
- more handouts could be great

Overall I give this course a solid 4/5, and if you want to rediscover one of the most useful SEO tools, this course is a good solution.

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Thank you to the client for leaving this appreciated review. Learn more about our notable projects by browsing the newest list on The Manifest.

If you’re interested in our SEO solutions, please get in touch.

Hi, I am Karol Kwiatkowski, and I run SEOBara.com, I have been doing SEO since 2007, and I think this is an excellent time to start sharing with the community.

At its core, SEOBara is a place of sharing knowledge and promoting good practices that benefit the users and site owners. I am trying to look past the veil of SEO in favor of the broader picture.

I hope that you will find here materials that will help you in your SEO activities.

Karol

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